Fluctuation asymmetry

About this training

The training introduces the concept of fluctuating asymmetry, that is, a deviation from the ideal symmetry of the body, which reflects the environmental pressure and the stress that the individual experienced during development. This phenomenon is an epigenetic measure of stress, revealing how experiences, both physical and emotional, shape a person’s biological and psychological functioning.

In response to stress and threat, the organism strives to maintain balance through the process of allostasis, the continuous regulation of emotions, physiological reactions and defence mechanisms. The cost of this adaptation, however, can be high. Over time it leads to overload of the nervous system, psychosomatic symptoms and rigidity in relationships, both with others and with oneself.

Every patient who comes into the office brings a history with them, not only in what they say but also in their body. Posture, the way they walk, tone of voice, muscular tension or micromovements are subtle traces of the organism’s adaptation to the stress, the relationships and the traumas that shaped their life.

In the training Monica Urru introduces participants to the complex relationship between the functioning of the nervous system, emotional processes and character defences. Combining clinical knowledge from psychotherapy, neurobiology and somatics, she shows how the body reflects the history of stress and, by the same token, how it can become a signpost in the therapeutic process.

The following key topics are discussed in the material:

• The body as a record of history: Monica Urru emphasizes that posture, the way a person moves and the asymmetry of the body reflect that person’s life history, their traumas and their adaptive strategies. Asymmetry is the best possible form of the organism’s adaptation to stress at a given moment.
• The link between asymmetry and the psyche: The training integrates the concept of asymmetry with the psychotherapeutic approach (including ISTDP), showing how character defence mechanisms are “written into” movement and muscular tension. Participants will learn how observation of the patient’s body provides key information about their mental state, their anxiety and their internal conflicts.
• Case analysis: The central point of the meeting is the analysis of a video recording of a patient. Participants observe her body language, the way she moves and the changes taking place in the symmetry of her body in response to therapeutic interventions. The training shows how a change in body symmetry, obtained by means of radioelectric therapy, leads to an immediate improvement in the patient’s balance, flexibility and wellbeing.

Here the patient’s body becomes not only the site of symptoms but also a map of adaptation, a testimony to a relational and emotional history that is still at work in the present.

A psychotherapist who learns to read these signals attentively is better able to:

• recognize defence mechanisms entrenched in the body,
• understand transference reactions in the context of the history of bonds,
• support the process of integrating emotional experiences,
• accompany the patient in building a new, healthier way of being in relationship.

The aim of the training is to deepen the understanding of the unity of body and psyche and to teach psychotherapists how to read the history written in the patient’s body, which allows for fuller and deeper therapeutic work.